Sunday, April 8, 2012

March 19, 2012

Dear family,

So to answer the questions about the camera, I don't have a possible way to buy a camera at this moment and time because I don't know how much money I have on the debit card. All the cameras around here are at least R$ 200 so I don't know how much that is in American money. Maybe around $125 or something. So if I know how much I have in the bank, then I will get the camera. Until now I have been trying to use some pictures from my companion's camera but his camera is freaking out so it is not working too well.

Wow that's cool to hear that it is snowing over there. Looks like Extreme Climate change is actually happening. Don't worry though, according to a member over here, the church is actually building a rocket ship that will bring us to a new planet and we will soon be leaving. We won't need to worry about Extreme Climate change anymore.

We actually had a lunch without any rice on Saturday. Instead it was just Pizza. My favorite was the bacon pizza. It was very weird not having any rice. But it was the best lunch ever. The irmã wasn't there to cook and so the husband didn't feel like cooking, so he just bought some take home and bake pizza. It was good stuff.

Cool to hear about Dad's new calling. The best way to learn about the gospel is teaching it. Because you have to go through all the studying and everything. I can only study the four same materials during my mission, so by the time I'm done, I will have them all memorized... in Portuguese. Then I can come back and read them in English and understand everything. haha just kidding. The language is coming along. Now I just need to pay attention to people because sometimes I just don't want to talk. Or listen. I think I struggle with listening a lot. Even at times when I do start listening, someone will say something that makes me think and then I focus on thinking about that and they have already changed subjects and then ask me a question and I respond with a answer that they didn't want and so they think I don't know the language.

Elder **** gets a lot of nose bleeds because of the altitude changes and the dry air. He already lost a handkerchief because of the blood. It was funny, it looked like he killed someone with his handkerchief. It was at a public restroom too, so he was worried someone would come in and see all the blood. That was the fun of this week.

A lot of the members are now practicing their English with us since we are Americans so we have mixes of Portuguese conversation and English conversations. Or sometimes we just talk about American bands.

The baptism fell through because the investigator went out of town this weekend and so we have to postpone the baptism for a later date because she needs to come to at least two sacrament meetings before she is baptized. Hopefully she will come next week. I think something important came up. She has a problem with smoking but she is trying to stop now which surprised us just a little, but I am sure it was because of the priesthood blessing we gave her. That helped a lot I am sure. She has great faith and that is something that I find at times I need to work on even more. I read everyday about the faith in the book of Mormon and I constantly ask myself that if I was in that situation, would I be able to do the same thing. Faith is the first principle of the Gospel and probably the most important since everything else falls into place afterwards: repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end. Faith and works. Don't forget works. You need to show you have faith with works.

I love you all and the gospel and church and book of Mormon is all true. That is why I am out here on the mission preaching the gospel. I wouldn't if it was not true, or I would be wasting two years of my life leading others astray. Is that worth it? No. The Gospel is most definitely true.